Eleven U.S. senators are now asking the full Senate to consider national standards to regulate the abortion industry.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, crafted the Senate resolution, saying "The lack of oversight at abortion facilities puts women's lives at risk and leads to the kind of unconscionable practices we have seen already."

This comes in the shadow of abortionist Kermit Gosnell's murder trial. His often filthy, unsanitary clinic in Philadelphia went uninspected by Pennsylvania for 17 years.

One complaint against Gosnell is that most of the babies killed in his clinic were blacks and other minorities. Some pro-lifers say this is part of a vast targeting of minorities that stretches over decades.

Will the Gosnell trial serve as a wake-up call to the black community?Kristen Hawkins, president of Students for Life, addressed that question and more on Newswatch, May 7.

Their charges are highlighted in a documentary about Gosnell's clinic, "3801 Lancaster." In it, Day Gardner of the National Black Pro-Life Union stated, "Abortion facilities are purposefully placed in inner city and minority neighborhoods to crush the bodies of innocent black children."

Standing next to Gardner at a protest outside Gosnell's clinic, Rev. Walter Hoye of the Issues4Life Foundation pointed out, "Seventy percent of all abortion facilities are located in the black and minority communities around this country."

"Abortion is the number one killer of African Americans, killing more black people than all other deaths combined," Gardner added.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life lobbying organization the Susan B. Anthony List, said the practice is not new.

"It really is rooted in what Planned Parenthood and all abortion rights organizations have been about for a long time," she said.

Dannenfelser said some of those abortionists believe "there are certain members of society who are expendable, that part of humanity really is just underbrush to be just swept out because they're really not all that useful."

One of the most horrific occurrences at Gosnell's clinic was the way some babies were fully delivered and then had their spines cut to kill them.

Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams testified about this clinic procedure at a Pennsylvania Senate hearing.

"They would then take scissors and place them at the base of the skull and snip or sever the spinal cord of those children that were born alive," Williams said.

"There was one baby that when it was born," Ponterio testified, "one of the workers was playing with it for several minutes before the worker did exactly what Dr. Gosnell did: snip the back of the neck."

Michael Geer of the Pennsylvania Family Institute said he hopes black leaders will begin to cry out about such killing.

"Groups like Planned Parenthood have a history of targeting minorities and African Americans," Geer told CBN News. "And we need to rethink abortion as being good, as some people in that community might think, that instead it's actually harmful and terrible for their community."

Dannenfelser added, "When you are truly targeted by abortionists, when because of the color of your skin there's an assumption that there should be fewer of you -- that hurts. It should hurt. And we should react. Even if we're not in those minority communities, we ought to react and say that is absolutely unacceptable."

Paul Strand

CBN News Washington Sr. Correspondent

As senior correspondent in CBN's Washington, D.C., bureau, Paul Strand has covered a variety of political and social issues, with an emphasis on defense, justice, and Congress. Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulStrandCBN and "like" him at Facebook.com/PaulStrandCBN.